Karnataka inks 10 technology deals at Bengaluru summit

Bengaluru, Nov 18 (IANS) Karnataka has signed 10 agreements with stakeholders at the three-day Bengaluru Technology Summit to leverage emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud, Analytics and Big Data, said a minister on Saturday.

“We have signed agreements at the summit with 10 stakeholders, including Virgin Hyperloop One, CoE for Data Science and AI, Intel Corporation, Business France India, 3M, NUMA and Growth Enabler Global,” said state IT & BT Minister Priyank Kharge.

The tech-savvy government also unveiled an ambitious project to provide free broadband connectivity to 500 local bodies (gram panchayats) in the first phase and extend it to 2,150 more local bodies in the rural areas in phases.

“We are also setting up Centres of Excellence (CoE) in IoT, robotics, cybersecurity, data analytics and aerospace. We plan to incubate about 20,000 start-ups by 2020 across the state and mobilise Rs 2,000-crore corpus to fund them,” said state Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande on the occasion.

“Our goal is to make Karnataka the creative capital of India with expertise in emerging technologies and harnessing the talent pool in Bengaluru and other cities across the state,” asserted Kharge.

Hosted by the state IT and BT department at Bengaluru Palace grounds in the city centre, the mega event had participation from 11,000 visitors, 3,173 delegates, 267 speakers and 250 exhibitors, which showcased leading edge technologies.

The summit also focussed on the biotech sector and its technologies changing the world, with personalized medicine, rare diseases and orphan drugs, bio therapeutics, agro biotech and new technology.